C URRENT LITER AT URE.
'ART-BOOKS.
The Royal Collection of Paintings. 180 Photogravures, with Descriptions by Lionel Cust. (W. Heinemann. 20 guineas.)— The first portfolio, dealing with the pictures at Buckingham Palace, is now issued, and will be followed by a second in the spring, which will represent the Windsor collection, and will give us an opportunity to return to this remarkable example of enterprise in the publishing world. If we eliminate the chaff in the Buckingham Palace collection, of which there is a considerable quantity, the residue of grain is undoubtedly of high quality. The Rembrandts are typical, and some of them first-rate. The collection is rich in Dutch pictures, some of which, like Pieter de Hooch's " Card-players," are masterpieces. The English school cannot be said to show greatly to advantage, although Gains- borough's "Duchess of Cumberland," to judge from the photogravure, must be a fine work. It is hard to imagine why such distressing things as the portraits of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort by a painter called Partridge should be dragged from obscurity and published. These works, are the survival of a bad epoch, and they surely need not have been forced into the light of day to encumber this already bulky portfolio. All but two of the Italian pictures owe their inclusion in the collection to the Prince Consort, and have lately been brought to Buckingham Palace from Osborne. One of these, an upright panel of two saints by Pesellino, is of wonderful beauty. The drawing and modelling of the feet and hands are marvellous. "The Lovers," by Titian, one of the fragments of the collection of Charles I., has much of the Giorgionesque passion and life. Mr. Oust has written a short account of each picture, giving the known facts about the work. Why he should also add a verbal description of the painting it is diftictdt to see. We do not need to be told that Lady ,Holland has flowers in her lap ; they are quite obvious In the photogravure to which the description is attached. Perhaps these unnecessary words may be described as vestigial remnants having their origin in the unillustrated catalogue of bygone days. The photogravures appear to be well executed, and our only quarrel with the work is the inclusion of rubbish among really fine things. Indifferent art often has its place in an historical record, but is without excuse in a "Royal Collection of Paintings." But though the work before us is open to criticism on these minor points; we have nothing but praise for the general result .achieved. The book is one which, in spite of its necessarily high price, will be eagerly sought after, not merely here, but wherever beautiful books are prized, either in the Old World or the New. The greater importance of the Windsor collection should render the companion volume, when it appears, of even wider interest.
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